The invention relates to an apparatus for the production and packaging of cigarettes, with at least one cigarette-producing machine and at least one packaging machine, the cigarette-producing machine and packaging machine being connected to one another by means of a cigarette conveyor which conveys a cigarette stream of cigarettes oriented transversely relative to the conveying direction from the cigarette-producing machine to the packaging machine and which has an arcuate cigarette store for receiving a cigarette stock.
In the large-scale production and packaging of cigarettes, an important precondition for achieving very high outputs is the most efficient possible coordination of the cigarette-producing machine or machines and packaging machine or machines. It is already known to couple cigarette-producing machines and packaging machines to one another directly for conveying purposes and feed the continuously produced cigarettes directly to a packaging machine by means of a cigarette conveyor. At the same time, a cigarette store can be formed in the region of the cigarette conveyor and receives a cigarette stock for compensating differences in output in the region of the cigarette-producing machine or the packaging machine.
In a known apparatus of this type (G.B. Patent Specification No. 1,299,174), the cigarette store is made arcuate, specifically either as an arc of a circle or a segment of an arc of a circle or helical. The cigarettes fed by means of the cigarette conveyor are partially introduced into the cigarette store which has arcuate conveyor belts driveable in one direction or the other. The cigarette store is designed as a blind-end store. The cigarettes are introduced and extracted for the emptying of the store at one and the same point.
Blind-end stores are disadvantageous for fundamental reasons, since considerable residues of cigarettes remain behind in the store over relatively long periods of time. These are then no longer suitable for use.